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LEACHING OF WEB SERVICES BY MIDNIGHTRUNS.COM

Here is a post we've made on this site. They were seriously abusing our free member web hosting accounts against very plainly stated rules. This kind of abuse of our resources will not be tolerated, and has been dealt with accordingly. Our free Web hosting accounts are monitored, logged, and we do check their activity from time to time. This abuse was EASY to spot. Bone heads!!

Quote:

Well, needless to say just about every movie clip listed here on this site isn't going to be working as of NOW. Unfortunately, it seems that the operators of this site have decided that paying for their own server and bandwidth resources would be to hard, and therefore, have decided to instead leach off those of MustangWorks.com (and possibly others). They have done this by registering several MustangWorks.com membership accounts even though the registration rules specifically state these free accounts are for MW members who are building actual personal web sites only, and then placed dozens of video clips across these acccounts and used windows media ASX streaming redirects on this site's server to send your media player to suck them off our members site. How nice that they can degrade our servers resources and build their own site up while we at Mustang Works pay for it.

Way to go guys... However, maybe next time you'll actually leach from someone that doesn't have a clue, and then maybe you won't get nailed. Just a thought!

Excerpts citing uses not allowed on our free member web hosting accounts:

"Binary files, downloads, etc. that are not linked to an html page on the users site, such that an advertising banner is displayed. Links back to files on a user's MustangWorks page from other sites must also link first to an html page on MustangWorks.com, which then links to the binary files."

"Storage of log files or non-html content, or any use of space that circumvents the display of advertising."

"On all free web sites, each page is required to display a banner at the top of the page. An advertising banner will be displayed by default at the top of every page served by our servers. Any attempts to undermine or avoid the display of the banner is considered a violation of this agreement and the site will be subject to immediate removal."

"Each user is requested to take only one account."

"MustangWorks.com web accounts may NOT be used to store binary files (photos, videos, sound files, music) of any type that Web users are directed to from another Web site or server for download (i.e. you can not use Mustang Works as a file repository)."

As of now, the accounts used by MidnightRuns.com to server many of their movie clips have been deleted. The accounts names have been banned, and the IP address used to access them has been banned from our hosting system, as well. Good day sirs.

--
MW Staff
The Mustang Works Magazine http://www.mustangworks.com

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Dan McClain, President
The Mustang Works Magazine
ICQ: 2937586 - AIM: DMcClain91GT
1991 Mustang GT - NOVI Supercharged 377 Stroker
1999 Ford Lightning SVT - 2000 Prototype updated by Roush

Wow, those guys were leaching off us?!? What a bunch of cheap bastards!

Way to ferret out there activities Dan.

Wasn't Lizard King a big Midnightruns guy?

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1995 Mustang GT

Good work Dan! That is a shame since it could easily slow down our time on the site...and at your expense. http://www.mustangworks.com/msgboard/rolleyes.gif Just one more thing you have to beware of on the net (like we needed anything else!).

Glad you keep such a tight leash on these issues. Sure makes our time quicker and easier while logged on! http://www.mustangworks.com/msgboard/smile.gif

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Nicolle Douglas
Girls Can Too, Editor
The Mustang Works Magazine
1993 Mustang GT - Supercharged 306
Dyno Sheet: 483.6 rwhp / 472.1 torque

I'm not even going to pretend that I know what went on. I know what you said and all, and I know that it's just not right. I'm glad that you keep a tight leash on things like that. Good job.

Just one question though, wasn't Midnightruns.com Lizard King's doing? I thought he mentioned something about it a while back. Eh, whatever.

Again good work. Later.

I am truly sorry Dan. I had used a single file to do a test with our
linking system for the video vault. Our intentions where to run everything
from my server at work since the bandwith for uploads here is not really
being used. I have been so busy with the rest of the site, and work that I
had to give the video vault manangement to B17GSR.

This whole thing was an oversight from my part. I guess B17GSR figured that
this was the way to do it.... (I can get hard to reach) ... and he started
putting files on Mustangworks. The worst thing is when my server was ready
to take the files he started putting them there, but didn't convert the old
ones. I know it seems like I am putting the blame on one of my moderator,
but I feel completely responsible for this. I should've taken a better
look at those files.

This is an unfortunate situation, and I will make sure our staff doesn't do
anything of that kind anymore. Afterall I am providing the necessary
ressources for this...

Best regards,

Lizard King • www.midnightruns.com

Ok, well, we've (I think) resolved this... Yes, as it turns out, Lizard King is the operator of the MidnightRuns.com site. Here is the direct correspondence I had with him once I found out he was the operator, and which should resolve it:

Quote:

Hello Seb,

Well, how to start off, I don't know because I am still in shock. I did not know at all that you were in fact the one who ran MidnightRuns.com. I don't recall seeing it before or knowing of it. Furthermore, I do not recall you ever asking me to use member accounts to serve your video clips.

Basically, after much neglecting of Mustang Works over the summer I was doing some much needed administration and maintenance last night. While checking over the member accounts, deleting inactive ones, and checking usage I found those accounts crammed full of video clips through examining the server reports. I had no idea who's accounts they were, but I knew they were being referred to by MidnightRuns.com by the reporting. Almost 60 megs of video clips were being linked to thousands of times, and I knew that was most definitely sucking on my bandwidth and resources. Since this type of usage for a member account is strictly forbidden in the rules, I immediately toasted them, banned the accessing IP, and tracked down the responsible party (MidnightRuns.com). I checked the "About us" page looking for who owned the site, but there was no info. So, being very upset someone was using my server resources this flagrunty without my permission, I wanted to let the users of the site know about it.

However, if I would have realized that you were the one who operated the site, I would have in fact Emailed you directly. And, even questioned myself on whether I had at some point said you could do this (although I can't remember doing so). So, what's going on?

--------------------------------------

Ovega Computer Corporation wrote:

I am truly sorry Dan. I had used a single file to do a test with our linking system for the video vault. Our intentions where to run everything from my server at work since the bandwith for uploads here is not really being used. I have been so busy with the rest of the site, and work that I had to give the video vault manangement to B17GSR (Eric).

This whole thing was an oversight from my part. I guess Eric figured that this was the way to do it.... (I can get hard to reach) ... and he started putting files on Mustangworks. The worst thing is when my server was ready to take the files he started putting them there, but didn't convert the old ones. I know it seems like I am putting the blame on one of my moderator, but I feel completely responsible for this. I should've taken a better look at those files.

This is an unfortunate situation, and I will make sure our staff doesn't do anything of that kind anymore. Afterall I am providing the necessary
ressources for this...

--------------------------------------

Ok, well I wish I would have known that the site was yours before I posted on your site about it. I was just in one of my "take no **** " moods. Over the years of dealing with the few problem makers you naturally encounter here and there while running something as large as MW, you learn that the only approach that works swiftly is to just take no **** . hahahahahahaha. Any ways, you've been a long time member of the site and active in the past on the boards. And, of course, even helped out when you designed the msg board logo. So, I want to assume that this wasn't intentional on your part as you've stated and just a screw up on Eric's part.

I'm glad that things are going well for you and your site. In fact, some of your videos are rather cool. ;-) And, probably, if you had asked me about storing them temporarily at MW I would have most likely helped you out. I just didn't know what the hell was going on, and since I had no idea who was doing this, I could only assume it was an intentional theft of my server resources even in the face of agreeing to the well stated rules people have to agree to in order to get a member hosting account.

So, I guess we're cool and we'll just let it go from here. I'll make a statement on MW, and you make one on yours, and we'll put this one to bed.

And, on that note I'll close the thread since it is hopefully a resolved issue now.

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Dan McClain, President
The Mustang Works Magazine
ICQ: 2937586 - AIM: DMcClain91GT
1991 Mustang GT - NOVI Supercharged 377 Stroker
1999 Ford Lightning SVT - 2000 Prototype updated by Roush